Recently, with the improvement of craftsmanship and people's living standards, one who wishes to buy a new product pays attention not only to the product's performance and price, but also to its convenience and safety of use. Such a change in market trends has driven manufacturers to innovate on a regular basis in order to meet most consumers' needs. Take the commonplace beverage containers for example. A cup of freshly brewed coffee or tea is typically made with a filter or tea bag so that coffee powder or tea leaves are filtered out and separated from the coffee liquid or tea infusion. The aforesaid brewing process, however, requires the filter or tea bag to be removed to another container, if not directly discarded, after the coffee or tea is made, lest the water remaining in the filter or tea bag wet the table, causing inconvenience to the one who has just made the coffee or tea.
In view of this, the inventor of the present invention developed a brewing container which can be conveniently carried around and make coffee or tea rapidly. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the brewing container 1 has a top side concavely provided with a receiving space 10 and a bottom side formed with a through hole 13 and a plurality of assembly holes 18. A water-stopping plate 2 is connected to the bottom side of the brewing container 1 and is peripherally provided with a plurality of pegs 21, wherein each peg 21 is configured to extend into, and move reciprocally up and down in, one of the assembly holes 18. The water-stopping plate 2 is centrally provided with a post 23. The post 23 is configured to extend into the through hole 13 and has a top end mounted with a water-stopping block 25. When the brewing container 1 is placed on a tabletop, with the water-stopping plate 2 fallen down naturally, each peg 21 abuts against the lower edge of the corresponding assembly hole 18. Meanwhile, the water-stopping block 25 blocks the through hole 13 completely (see FIG. 1). As a result, the liquid in the receiving space 10 cannot flow out through the through hole 13. When the brewing container 1 is placed on a cup, which pushes the water-stopping plate 2 upward, each peg 21 abuts against the upper edge of the corresponding assembly hole 18, and the water-stopping block 25 leaves the position where it blocks the through hole 13, allowing the liquid in the receiving space 10 to flow out through the through hole 13. Thus, the brewing container 1 can be used to make coffee or tea and serve as a convenient temporary container for the used ground coffee or tea bag, without the user having to worry about the remaining liquid in the brewing container 1 flowing out.
Nevertheless, the inventor has found during continual research and development of brewing containers that the brewing container 1 still has certain drawbacks in use, as detailed below:
(1) Difficulty in disassembly and cleaning: Referring back to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the pegs 21 are integrally formed with the water-stopping plate 2 and are not elastically compressible. Therefore, in order to connect the water-stopping plate 2 to the bottom side of the brewing container 1, the pegs 21 must be deformed, or they cannot extend into the respective assembly holes 18. By the same token, when it is desired to remove the water-stopping plate 2 for cleaning, the pegs 21 must also be deformed to be released from the respective assembly holes 18. Whether it is to mount or dismount the water-stopping plate 2, the user must exert a considerable force to deform the pegs 21, and the connections between the pegs 21 and the water-stopping plate 2 may break due to improper force application, thus impairing the durability of the brewing container 1. Also, the difficulty in disassembly makes it inconvenient to clean the water-stopping plate 2.
(2) Low flowing speed of beverages: The brewing container 1 is mounted therein with a filtering element 26 which prevents the brewing material (i.e., ground coffee or tea leaves) in the receiving space 10 from flowing with the coffee or tea into a cup. However, taking tea leaves for example, most of the openings of the filtering element 26 tend to be blocked by the tea leaves such that the liquid in the receiving space 10 cannot flow into the cup placed below. In use, therefore, the user has to stir the tea leaves in the receiving space 10 with a spoon in order for the liquid (i.e., tea) to be rapidly filtered into the cup.
In light of the above, the inventor contemplated designing a novel brewing container structure which not only can be easily assembled/disassembled and cleaned, but also can keep its filtering element from being blocked by the brewing material. The inventor began by analyzing the structures of various brewing containers, hoping to overcome the foregoing drawbacks by developing a brewing container that caters for both manufacture considerations and user needs.